Moses' father-in-law, the 'Priest of Midian', is referred to in the Hebrew Bible as 'his excellence' (jethro) and as the 'friend of God' (reu-el). Used interchangeably, these names describe an exceptional person whose influence on Moses has long been underestimated. Jethro's influential relationship is indicated in the Bible's record as –

This is the man with whom Moses had spent forty years, from age 40 to age 80, and whose permission he first obtained before his return to Egypt.

Forty years before the Exodus, Moses had put himself into voluntary exile from Egypt - rather than side with Pharaoh against his birth people. As the dominant regional power, most of Egypt's neighbours were not a place to flee to, so he journeyed on to Midian.

Forty years later, however, an 80-year-old Moses returns to Egypt, equipped with more than the royal education its wise men had endowed him or its military disciplines had imparted. His burning-bush experience in Sinai had commissioned him, but Moses' great respect for his priestly father-in-law meant that he needed his blessing to go:

Remember, it is from within the Jethro-context of Moses' life that God commissioned him to lead Israel –

This commissioning context is very important even though Moses is returning to do what he felt called to do those forty years before in Egypt (Acts 7:25).

Apart from Jethro's priestly example, what lasting value could God have intended Moses to receive in those forty long years in such a radically different culture from his Egyptian background?

There are two significant possibilities – our Bible books of Job and Genesis.

Job, by its language and content, appears to predate Israel's Exodus and Sinai covenant – predate Moses' call to lead his people.

Job himself lived in the land of Uz, the territory of Edom (Lam. 4:21) – the descendants of Esau, son of Isaac – which borders on Midian. Job was not an Israelite. Who wrote his book, and how did it come to be part of Israel's holy scriptures?

Genesis, rich with detail from long before Moses, has two elements in the structure of its text which point to the use of pre-existing material in Moses' inspired composition of this book – the toledot headings and the poetic word-sets (see below). Where and how did this material come into his hands?

The toledot headings are the style used in clay tablets, very un-Egyptian, but very familiar to other cultures such as Midian. The word-rhythms sets draw their impact from the semitic language rhythm, in which Midian also shared. Certainly, some of these later word-rhythm sets were passed on through the God-fearing individuals among Israel in Egypt, but the much older and often shorter sets probably came through the more stable source represented in Jethro the priest and his godly associates.

During the thirty-eight-year delay in the desert of Israel's migration, as the adults of that generation died out by God's judgement, Moses – literate, educated, useful to God and inspired – was certainly not idle. In these years the rich legacy of his forty years with Jethro, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, would have become material to a literary construction more wonderful than the Tabernacle at Sinai; the beginnings of Holy Scripture, unparalleled and forever the gift of God to His people in all generations!

Praise God that the bitter pill of voluntary exile, because his very own people had distrusted him (Ex.2:14), brought Moses to a godly source whose benefits, by God's wisdom, still reach us today!

and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times.
Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you [Moses].
If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.'